Nicolas, J.C., Sanitja: a Roman Settlement North of Es Mercadal, Festes Majors D’Es Mercadal, 1985, Pp
Nicolas, J.C., Sanitja: a Roman Settlement North of Es Mercadal, Festes Majors d’Es Mercadal, 1985, pp. 21-30. “The Balearic Islands, inhabited by people skilled in the use of the sling, were called Gymnesiae by the Greeks. The largest island has a length of 100,000 strides and a perimeter of 475,000. Of its towns, Palma and Pollentia have Roman rights, while Guium and Tucis have Latin rights. Bochorum, which no longer exists, enjoys the right to federation. The smaller island differs from the former in that it measures 40,000 strides across and is 150,000 around. It has the cities of Iamon, Sanisera and Magon.” Caius Plinius. Naturalis Historia, III, 77-78. This description of the Balearic Islands made by Plinius in the mid I century AD is of great value to Menorcan history because, apart from naming two cities, Ciudadela (Iamo) and Mahón (Mago) which were already known through earlier texts, for the first time it identifies a third city – Sanisera – located on the shores of the port of Sanitja to the north of Es Mercadal . A few years ago the link between the ancient name of Sanisera and the present name of Sanitja was recognized. In 1947, the historian A. Garcia Bellido made the statement , in his commentaries on the works of Pomponius Mela and Caius Plinius referring to Hispania, that Sanisera is unknown (Alayor) (1). Years later, Anna María Muñoz, in her study of Greek and Latin sources on the Balearics, commented, in reference to Plinius’s text that where Sanisera is concerned, we have neither data nor, for the moment, know its situation (2) At the end of the XVIII century, Joan Ramis y Ramis had already suggested the similarity between the names of Sanitja and Sanisera in his treatise of the famous text by Plinius in the manuscript used widely by José de Vargas Ponce in his book Descripciones de las islas pithiusas y Baleares published in Madrid in 1787 (3) Ramis’ manuscript used almost literally by Vargas Ponce was published in the Revista de Menorca in 1948.
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